DETROIT (AP) - An assistant U.S. attorney from Florida was arrested in an Internet sting operation after flying to Michigan to have sex with a 5-year-old girl, authorities said Monday. John D.R. Atchison, 53, was arrested Sunday at Detroit Metropolitan Airport after several weeks of Internet conversations between the prosecutor and a detective posing as the mother of a 5-year-old girl, authorities say.

"There wasn't much reaction from him at all," Macomb County Sheriff Mark Hackel said. Atchison was cooperative with authorities, he said.

He was charged with using interstate communication to entice a minor to have sexual contact and traveling across state lines with the intent of engaging in illicit sexual contact. If convicted of both charges, he faces up to 40 years in prison.

According to court records, Atchison initiated an online chat Aug. 29 with an undercover officer posing as a mother interested in letting men have sex with her daughter.

At one point, Atchison said: "I'm always gentle and loving; not to worry; no damage ever; no rough stuff ever ever," according to an affidavit filed in court.

Atchison, of Gulf Breeze, Fla., is a prosecutor for the U.S. attorney's office for northern Florida, based in Tallahassee. He requested a court-appointed lawyer at his hearing Monday.

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

My question to you... how should this bastard be punished? Feel free not to mince words.

Well, thing is he had the intention but didn't go through with it, so in this case I'd advocate putting him behind bars and keeping him away from children. He will get what's his in prison once people find out why he's there.

Well, my main thing is his comment about how he's "Always gentle". How many children has he done this too, you know? Looks to me like he's insinuating he's done this enough time to "know what he's doing" or whatever.

Ew, I lived around there in Florida and now I live in Michigan. I couldn't even begin to think of a punishment, who should be punished more than the mother's who really do this to their daughters?! There are mom's who really do that?!

Castration. Its just like abortion should be lawed. You have unprotected sex and you want an abortion? Fine, It's free, and your name goes in a database. Do it again? Sure, here's your abortion, its One hundred dollars. And that pays for your sterilization immediately following the abortion. What? You wanted kids later in life? Then why did you kill these, if you wanted kids? Too late now.

He wants to have sex with kids, then he obviously either 1)Doesn't have his own 2)Doesn't want his own, and 3)The catch all, SHOULDN'T have his own. Therefore, we castrate him, he has an amazing career as a vocal artist, and our children are safe. What, you wanted to have sex with a future wife and your own children some day? Sorry, no mother would want you around her children, not even if you fathered them...

Quite honestly, when you're talking about the molestation of children before the development of secondary sexual characteristics, I'd say an axe is in order, in a public demonstration of castration.

Lop off their bits and throw 'em a rag. If they bleed to death - oh well. If they manage to stem the flow of blood, well, at least they won't bother anyone anymore.

Should they kill a child in the process, then I think they ought to hand the survivors over to the kid's parents and let them decide how quickly to kill them. Could be years of hard labor atoning for his crime, could be with mom cutting his still-beating heart out in front of his eyes. Either way works for me.

On the other hand, I think entrapment is wrong. I don't think it's justice to prosecute people for what they think or want or for what they think they want. I think they should spend more effort and money on catching the people that are selling off these kids than the diseased people that want to have sex with them. Entrapment seems more than just unjust, I just don't think it's very effective.

That being said, I also think sending 19 year olds to prison for having sex with their 16 year old girlfriends/boyfriends is ridiculous and interferes with the prosecution of real predators.

I think entrapment for prostitution, etc is wrong.. unless it's a situation like this. I'm totally cool with the cops catching this mofo. If it's to save a child from being hurt, then by all means, entrap away I say.

But I deem a child as 13 and under generally. Sometimes older depending on the situation, but I agree with the thing about the statutory rape laws. That's bull when they're that close in age. It should be on a case to case basis.

I think he should go to prison in a shirt that very clearly states why he's there. I imagine that'll handle a good enough amount of misery for him. Beyond that, same as I'd say for any other criminal, make 'em do boring, nasty stuff nobody else wants to do, like pick up trash or deal with porta-potties or something (I just woke up, can't think of many things people in general would really rather not do -- but you get my idea I figure).

Cut his penis off. No doubt in my mind. Then make sure the people in jail are well aware of what he's in there for, and hopefully they'll kill him. There are more things than his cock that he can use to abuse children. The only way to know for sure that it'll never happen again is to wipe his sick ass off the face of the earth.

Not that I at all condone what Mr. Atichison may have been hoping to do.

But, in these cases, I really wonder just who the victim is supposed to be.

It's rare that someone is convicted of, or even charged with, murder when there is no dead body. There's an example for comparison.

Here, the victim is ... a nonexistent person?

Or the victim is a police officer of the age of majority? Then how is that officer the victim of solitications that were committed against a minor?

There has to be a better way of stopping these acts before they happen ... before they happen to real victims.

One day, I hope, our courts will take a bigger stand to do two things: (1) uphold the letter of the law and not allow it to be warped in this way; and (2) compel the legislative and executive branches of our governments to come up with better, less questionable, more effective, less costly ways of stopping adults from abusing real children. Something I cannot stand is to see government diverting funds from real acts of necessity to grossly inefficient ways of dealing with something else.

What do you suggest as a way to catch people that intend to hurt children then? If he was looking online for this sort of ting, eventually he probably would have fond some awful parent, or child slaver who would be willing to sell him a couple hours with a baby for the right price.

I'm thrilled this cocksucker is going to jaile,a nd that everyone knows who he is now. I think that all chidl molestors should have to wear a permanent mark, so that they have limited opportunity to hurt a child again, should they ever be deemed as worthy of getting out of prison.

And as far as I'm concerned, they should stay in jail. You hurt a child in that way, that's it. Zero tolerance policy. Or if there is proof you intended to hurt a child. Same thing. Entrapment or not. I honestly don't care, so long as these sleazebags never have the opportunity to be within glancing distance of my child.

Forever as far as I'm concerned. I realize that's not always the popular position here but I don't give two shits. My journal. In my journal land perverts who hurt children spend the rest of their life in jail, hopefully paying for their crimes in a very painful way.

part of me says make him eat at American Coney for a week straight. Another part of me says give him a Mercedes Benz with a some sort of "Dearborn Neighborhood Watch" shirt. And then have that benz get a flat down around Rosa Parks and Warren or over off of E. Grand by the Packard.

Or have him carry a sign advertising the Toyota Camry down by the River Rouge Ford plant.

Or my favorite, give him a Kia or a Geo. Have him go from downtown Detroit up to Hamtramick (I will never be able to spell that right) on 96. During Rush Hour. And he has to start in the far right lane from Cobo.